Page 64 - Aug Sept 2016
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Violence and Violent Crime- The Gender Consideration
assumes that women who commit system discriminates; women who kill
offences chose to do so for pragmatic/ their [often abusive] husbands are con-
rational reasons; classicists will be victed of murder whilst men who kill
jumping for joy! their wives are convicted of manslaughter.
Thus, if convicted of murder which wom-
In terms of victimization, women are en are, the only sentence available is life;
largely accountable for rape or other even when convicted of murder, men and
sexual assaults but even here the women are still treated differently with
amount of disproportionate statistical tariffs higher for women than men.
analysis is difficult given that male
rape and male sexual assault is under- Male perpetrators may be more selfish in
reported and (in some countries) their approach to crimes; committing of-
legally ignored. Stigma attached to fences which are directly of benefit and
victims of sexual assault is horrendous which give an immediate sense of gain.
for female victims but this is more so In violence, men use violence as a first,
when victims are male. This is largely rather than last resort, as it on two levels
due to men being perceived as (i) the it gets them what they want: the first is
aggressors or (ii) physically able to the object of their attention; the second is
fight off an assault. status and self-belief in their own ability.
Violence for many men seems to be a way
In England and Wales, legislation is to [re]assert their masculinity. Violence
quite specific in terms of the crime of committed by women - on the whole - ap-
rape in that a penis must be inserted pears to be a last resort; there was no other
into either a vagina or the anal passage way to get either in or out of a situation
(or mouth); so whilst a victim may be and thus violence was used.
either male or female, the perpetrator
must be male. In Scots law, the act of Of course, there are criminal couples: men
rape can only be committed by a man and women who work together - though
on a woman; male on male sexual not necessarily in harmony - to make fi-
assault is just that - sexual/indecent nancial and other gains. Prostitutes have
assault but not rape. Where victim for many years used (and been used by)
and perpetrator are one and the same male pimps. The men offer protection,
(e.g. an abused wife retaliates against security from harassment whether this is
her husband) there are inconsistencies from other working women, volatile cli-
between the genders. According to ents and other pimps who want to ‘muscle
CEDAW, women are more likely to ‘to in’ on the money earned by the prostitute.
be killed than to kill’ but the legal
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